BUCHAREST, Romania, May 4, (AP): Romanians are casting ballots Sunday in a critical presidential election redo after last year’s annulled vote plunged the European Union and NATO member country into its worst political crisis in decades. Eleven candidates are vying for the presidency and a May 18 runoff is expected. Polls opened at 7 am (0400 GMT) and will close at 9 pm (1800 GMT).

By 10 am local time (0700GMT), 1.8 million people - about 10% of eligible voters - had cast ballots, according to the Central Election Bureau, with a massive 425,000 coming from voters abroad. Romania’s political landscape was shaken last year when a top court voided the previous election in which the far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped the first round, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow has denied.

Like many countries in the EU, anti-establishment sentiment is running high in Romania, fueled by high inflation and cost of living, a large budget deficit and a sluggish economy. Observers say the malaise has bolstered support for nationalist and far-right figures like Georgescu, who is under investigation and barred from the rerun.

While data from local surveys should be taken with caution, a median of polls suggests that hard-right nationalist George Simion will enter the runoff, likely pitting him against Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, or the governing coalition’s candidate, Crin Antonescu. At a polling station in the capital, Bucharest, Simion appeared Sunday morning alongside Georgescu and told reporters: "We are here with one mission only: the return to constitutional order, the return to democracy. I have no other goal than first place for the Romanian people.”

For his part, Georgescu called the vote rerun "a fraud orchestrated by those who have made deceit the only state policy,” but that he was there to "acknowledge the power of democracy, the power of the vote that frightens the system, that terrifies the system.” Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician and former anti-corruption activist who founded the Save Romania Union party (USR) in 2016, is running on a pro-EU "Honest Romania” ticket.

After casting his ballot, Dan said he voted "for hope and a new beginning” for Romania. "I voted with realism, because Romania is going through a difficult time,” he said. Veteran centrist Antonescu, 65, who campaigned on retaining Romania’s pro-Western orientation, said Sunday morning that he voted for "a united Romania, for a strong Romania, for a dignified Romania.”